


We're Going Ghost!

by dytabytes



Category: Adventure Time
Genre: Gen, Quest fic, Yuletide 2012
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-21 19:59:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/601528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dytabytes/pseuds/dytabytes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finn and Jake go on an adventure through Ghost Land!</p>
            </blockquote>





	We're Going Ghost!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stockingsandseams](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stockingsandseams/gifts).



“And then I was all ‘WHOOO!’” Jake pulled his body into a huge noodle shape, wiggling around like a blob of jello and setting Finn on another wave of laughter

“Aw man, yeah, I totally remember that! And after you were all ‘Holy _geez_ , Finn, that was super- ah?” Finn’s head snapped towards the door, confused.

“Naw, I didn’t say ‘ah’, it was more like-”

Finn wiggled out from between Jake’s noodly coils, cutting his friend off. “No, Jake, I know. ‘S cool. I just. I heard something doorbell-like.”

“Huh.” Jake pulled himself back together and trotted after Finn to the door of their home. “We have a doorbell?”

“We don’t.” Finn pulled his sword out from under his bed. "That's why I'm- HIYAH!” He kicked the door open with his foot and lashed out at the stranger that had happened upon their door in the middle of the night.

"Whooooa, guys! I think someone's been listening to too many scary stories."

"Marceline!" Finn propped a hand on his hip and waved his sword in the vampire queen's direction. "Yeesh! Don't do that! You nearly scared me right outta my jammies!"

"Yeah! And that's hard, since he wears a onesie!", chimed in Jake, who had just crawled out from within a nearby tea kettle.

"Riiiight." Marceline floated by both boys to settle a couple inches over their couch, sprawling lazily with her bass guitar cradled in her arms. "Anyway, I need a favour."

"Again? Marceline, don't tell me it's-"

"Hey! No being bait for venomous frogdolytes! That was a one time endeavour and wow, I can't believe you'd even think I'd do that to you at, what, five past witching hour?"

At Marceline's put out expression, Finn and Jake slumped, apologetic.

"Well, y'know, it's not like it never happened before, but sorry for assuming and stuff. We know you're cool and all."

"Psh, yeah, you better." Marceline grinned, shedding her crocodile tears. "Anyway, you can make it up to me by doing this thing for me. See, my Hambo's missing."

“Hambo?” Jake’s face shifted into a giant yellow question mark as he tried to place the name. “Sounds like something really tasty...”

“Mmm, no, it’s... it’s...!” Finn rubbed at his chin, then snapped his fingers, excited. “It’s that stuffed toy thing! You know, the one that Marceline broke up with her boyfriend over?”

“Oh yeah! That’s it!”

The boys high-fived with much sparkling and dancing and rejoicing, until Marceline cut in with a short cough.

“Uh, can we get back to the problem here? Namely that my Most Important Possession is totally missing right now, and I can’t get it back without relying on you two dorks?”

Immediately the boys halted their galavanting. Finn slid down off of Jake’s back, hitting the floor head-first as the two of them stared at Marceline.

“Say... not that I mind helping you and all, but why do you need _us_ to get Hambo back?”

Jake wiggled out from under Finn’s legs, nudging his buddy back into an upright position. “Yeah, aren’t you the Vampire Queen?”

“Exactly.” Marceline sighed and rolled onto her stomach, propping her chin in her hands. “See, I didn’t just _lose_ Hambo. He was stolen.”

“No way!” Jake and Finn gasped dramatically, then paused. “Wait. That’s still not something that’d stop you, right?”

“Uh, no? If someone takes my stuff, I’m stealing it right back and then some!” Marceline pumped her fist into the air, then faltered. “Except for this time. See, when I got home, my place was _covered_ in ectoplasm.”

“Eeeeeew!” Jake reeled away, tongue stuck out in obvious disgust. “Ectoplasm!” And then he paused. “… what is it?”

“Ugh! It’s the stuff ghosts leave behind when they’ve been places!” Marceline’s hair spiked out and her eyes went slit-pupil in her annoyance. “And ghosts beat vampires, so I can’t beat them up to get Hambo back!”

“Oh.”

“Right.”

“Okay.”

“Well.”

“We’ll totally help you out!” “Guess you’d better go find someone else to help you!”  
“Wait....” Finn and Jake stared at each other, shocked at their buddy’s response. “Seriously?”

Jake wrapped an arm around Finn’s shoulders. “Excuse us.” He dragged Finn outside of the house and shut the door. It was muffled, but inside, Marceline could still hear him shouting “ARE YOU NUTS?!”. She shrugged and kicked back on the couch again, strumming on her bass guitar. They’d come around soon enough. If they didn’t, she always had Bonnibel as her back up.

===

“Ghosts, Finn! They’re all ooky and creepy and stuff! And you can’t fight a ghost! You just pass right through ‘em!”

“Yeah, but... we still got a chance of beating them, Jake. Marceline doesn’t have _any_. That’s even worse for her!” Finn frowned and rubbed at his forehead. “Plus, pals help out pals, right?”

Jake hesitated, then sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. Pals help out pals.”

The dog leaned into his brother for a quick hug, then pulled back, expression bright and cheery once more. “Alright, let’s go kick some ghost hiney!”

===

“Passports please.”

“Uhhhhh.” Jake and Finn looked at each other, then back at the guard in the dinky little tollbooth that sat between the Land of Ooo and Ghost Land. “Pass... ports?”

The ghost guard stared at them with his giant yellow eye. “Yes, passports. How do you expect to get into Ghost Land without them?”

“Well, I sort of thought I could just move this one foot … in front of this other foot... and then move the other foot … in front of this foot... until I moved right over?”

During his demonstration, Finn managed to wobble his way across the wide red line that clearly demarcated the border between the two lands. If he’d done it on purpose, it would have been a brilliant plan.

As it was, though, it was a huge mistake.

The little guard’s eye bulged out and his mouth expanded into a gigantic megaphone speaker.

“ILLEGAL ENTRY!”

Finn and Jake yelped and ran back as the earth started shaking, quaking, breaking apart into pieces beneath their feet.

“RELEASE THE LAND WURM!”

“L-land wurm?” asked Jake, as if they weren’t going to find out what it was in a matter of seconds.

“The protector of Ghost Land!” shouted the guard with his still-gigantic mouth. “Charon the laaaaaaaaaand wuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurm!”

And then a humongous, many-toothed crawly thing burst from the ground, roaring and screeching and creating quite a fuss.

The boys responded in the only way possible.

“Aaaaaaaaaaah!”

Screaming loudly, they tried to make a run for it, but the land wurm was rather too large and fast for them to quite escape. Swiftly, it grabbed them in its jiggly purple coils, then stared down at them with its many beady little eyes. As its mouth gaped open, Jake whispered, “Hey buddy, I think we’re gonna-”

“ **Be more responsible about your border crossing habits.** ”, the wurm intoned, then promptly threw our dynamic duo as far back into the Land of Ooo as it could.

“Hold on, buddy!” Jake grabbed onto Finn’s shoulders and spread himself out into a wide parachute in order to soften their fall. They still landed in a pile of trash (because the edges of countries always end up collecting piles of trash) but at least they didn’t land _too_ hard.

“Oof!” Finn crawled out from under Jake, and helped his buddy pull himself back together without getting caught on the corners of the many junky things they’d landed in. “Geez. That was pretty harsh.”

“Yeah, man! Who’d have thought the Ghost Landers would be so mean?” Jake pulled a piece of gum out of his ear and threw it into the trash pile. “How’re we gonna get in now?”

“Hmm.” Finn jutted his lip out and rubbed his chin, thinking. His eyes lit upon something that might be useful. “I’m not sure, but I think I might have an idea...”

===

“Halt! Who goes there!”, shouted the Border Guard. Out of the mists of the Land of Ooo floated a pair of young ghosts.

Or, well, actually it was Finn and Jake covered in a pair of old ratty sheets, but they looked close enough.

“I’m...” Finn scratched his head with his sheet-covered hand. “Bert? And this is my friend, um, Ernie.”  
Jake wiggled his arms, attempting to look ghost-like. “OooooOooOOooohh.”

“I see.” The guard squinted at the two of them. “Well, you definitely look like ghosts. Passports?”

“We’re, uh, newly dead.” Finn poked his fingers together. “So we don’t... have them?”

It was a pretty flimsy excuse, but the guard’s eye softened.

“Aaaah. Yeah, see that all the time. You forgot that ghost pockets are intangible and tried to grab your living ones instead of your dead ones, didn’t you?” The guard nodded agreeably and waved the boys through. “Go on, go on!”

“Haha! Thanks man! You’re the best!”

Finn waved at the guard as he and Jake ran across the border into Ghost Land.

“You two be careful, now!” The guard waved back, then settled onto his chair to watch the border. “Kids these days. So forgetful!”

A groaning rattle shivered up from the floor beneath his feet.

“Aw, don’t worry Reggie. I’ll feed you later.”

===

If they had thought things would be smooth sailing once they got into Ghost Land, Finn and Jake were sorely mistaken.

“This is so not cool, man.” Finn huffed as the pair walked through the cold, grey fields of Ghost Land.

Jake grimaced wiped at his face with the remains of his crappy ghost costume, shivering violently. “Yeah! People keep moaning and floating through us like we’re not even here, and then they leave me covered with this green goop!”

“It’s ectoplasm.”

“Oh yeah- Wait, huh?” Jake did a double take. Sitting on the ground was a little gnome-like man, dressed in brown. “Who’re you?”

The man stood up, brushing his clothes off as he did. “Name’s Sherringford, but that’s not important. What _is_ is that you two are the first live people I’ve seen here in years! Other than myself, of course.”

“How can you tell we’re alive?”

Sherringford raised an eyebrow.

“Why, you’re tangible of course!”

“Tangible?” Finn sniffed his armpit. “I showered last night …?”

“Nono, you smell fine! What I mean is that you’re actually interacting with the physical plane, rather than just floating over it!” Sherringford seemed rather distraught as he continued to rant. “How did you manage to get into Ghost Land without knowing anything about ghosts?”

“Uh.”

“We sort of just.”

“Winged it.”

“Yup.”

The two nodded sagely while Sherringford smacked his hand into his face.

“Fifteen years and the first live people I meet here are idiots...”

“Hey!”, shouted Jake, but Finn shouted over him, struck by a realization. “You’ve been here for fifteen years?”

“Indeed I have!” Sherringford drew himself up to his full two foot tall height. “I’m Sherringford Watson, the leading scholar and academic with regards to ghost studies in all the world!”

“Cool.” Finn blinked blankly, then smiled. “So, uh, have you seen anyone around here carrying a stuffed … thing?” He moved his hands around, trying to describe Hambo’s shape. “Sort of wiggly here, but squishy there, and pink and brown and green and stuff?”

“Have I --?” Sherringford doubled over with laughter. “Ohoho! Oh, my friend, you must be jesting!”

“Uh... no. No I’m really not.”

“Then you two have some serious misconceptions about the physics of ghosts!” Sherringford wiped tears from his eyes. “For ghosts have no colour, for one, and even if the possession you search for is a living one, rather than dead, no ghost in the world would have been able to pick it up!”

“None... ever?” Finn frowned, concerned. If he and Jake had been barking up the wrong tree this whole time, that would really suck.

“Well, most of them wouldn’t, at least.” Sherringford shrugged. “It takes great amounts of power and concentration for ghosts to interact with the living. Perhaps the Ghost Princess might be able to for long enough to carry a, a _stuffed thing_ all the way from the Lands of the Living to here, but I can’t think of anyone else even close to capable of that kind of feat.”

“Ghost Princess...” Finn shrugged. “Cool, okay. You know where she is, man?”

“Hmph. Well.” The little man shook himself, then pointed to a castle on a hill. “If she’s anywhere she’d be there, but-”

“Thanks, man! Hope you manage to, I dunno, learn lots more stuff about ghosts!”

Jake and Finn ran off to the castle before Sherringford could finish his sentence.

The little man sat back down on the ground and hugged his knees.

“No one ever listens to the things I have to say...”

===

“Psst. You sure we can do this?” Jake whispered to Finn from under his somewhat-frayed sheet.

“Well, yeah? I mean, we came this far, right?” Finn looked up over the shoulders of the ghost people he was following. “Plus, everyone else in this long line to see the Princess’s castle seems to be getting in just fine?”

Indeed, there were a great many ghosts floating in through the entrance of Ghost Princess’s castle. The line was long, but it was moving at a brisk pace, and Finn and Jake were almost there.

“Haha, yeah you’re right! I’m sure we’re not going to have any problems at all...” Jake smiled and stepped forward. “See, we’re just about the next ones in line!”

He promptly ran headfirst into the wall standing between the two billowing curtains that marked the entrance to the castle.

“Uh...” Jake looked up, then down, then side to side. “Dude, is this the entry?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Finn came up behind Jake, peering at the wall. “Everyone else was just walking in?”

A booming voice sounded behind them. “Foolish children!” A ghost wearing ornate armour stood with his hands on his hips. “One does not simply _walk_ into the Princess’s castle!”

“They don’t?”

“No!” The guard rose up into the air with a proud expression on his face. “We are ghosts! With our ghost pride... we float!”

His gaze landed back onto Finn and Jake. “Do you not have pride in your ghostliness?”

“We aren’t really ghosts, though.” Finn smiles sheepishly. “We’re just here to see Ghost Princess about something.”

The guard cocked his head to the side.

“Oh, _living_ people. I _see_. So what are you here about?” He sniffed and crossed his hands over his chest. “I’ll convey your message to the Princess and see if she wants to see you or not.”

Finn shuffled his feet a bit. “Our friend lost her stuffed animal, and she thinks a ghost might have it. His name is Hambo and-”

“Wait, _Hambo_?!” The guard’s eyes flew wide open, and he clutched his hands to his chest in fright. “So sorry, I forgot that the Princess is washing her hair! I suppose you’ll just have to leave and come back later. Maybe in a million years or so?”

And with that, the guard flew away as Finn and Jake watched.

“Well that wasn’t very good.”

“Eh. How long do you think hair washing will take?”

“Man, if Lady Rainicorn’s in a mood, sometimes washing her hair takes _days_.” Jake groaned and flopped onto the ground. “We’re gonna be waiting forever.”

“Naw, man, she’s a princess! They’re polite and stuff, right? So we won’t be waiting here that long, I’m sure!”

===

Hours later, Finn rolled around on the ground with Jake.

“Jake, it’s been _forever_.”

“I know, man. I know.”

“I’m boooooored.”

“I know.”

“I’m hungry.”

“I- Wait, Finn, when did your voice get so deep?”

Jake rolled over and came face to face with the dripping maw of an extremely unfriendly looking lion.

“You’re not Finn.”

“No, I’m not. But you’re my _dinner_.”

The ghostly lion snapped its jaws around the air where Jake had very quickly disappeared from.

“Run!”

What followed was a rather hectic chase scene, with a lot of screaming and running around. Many ghost homes were run through, and ghost people were run through and the boys ended up covered in ectoplasm.

“Ew this is gross ew ew ew it’s in my faaaaaaaaace!”

Even as they managed to not run into anything (because nothing in the Ghost Land was tangible, except for the ground), the boys managed to trip over their own feet, falling blindly into a goopy heap.

“Raaaawr!” The lion dove in and clamped his jaws together around our cowering heroes, sharp teeth... passing right through them.

Because ghosts can’t touch living things, and Finn and Jake were very much alive.

Immediately the ghost lion backed off and sat down hard on his rump. “I … I can’t eat you.”

“No! Serves you right, you big poop face!”, shouted Jake, who was much braver now that he wasn’t afraid of being eaten by a lion.

Finn was about to join in, but then the lion curled up and started crying.

“Hey... hey dude, what’s wrong?”

The heroic human couldn’t help but come back and pat the lion on the back, no matter how much Jake was tugging at his arm and telling him that they should leave already.

“Are you _that_ hungry? Don’t ghosts have, like, ghost food or something that you could eat?”

“There is but...”, the lion sniffled loudly, “I just miss being alive so much! I used to be a Dandy Lion, you know? I’d lie in the sun all day and eat candy and clouds... things that had real _colour_ to them!”

“Geez. That blows chunks.” Finn scratched his head. “Well, I can’t really bring any colour to you here in Ghost Land, but...” His gaze rolled over to meet Jake’s, to speak to him in the unspoken language of brothers.

_You wanna help me out?_

Jake shook his head vigorously.

_Man, don’t you see this is a bad idea?_

_But he’s hurting, dude! Look at how he’s hurting!_

Finn tipped his head sharply at the lion, who was still sniffling into his paws.

Jake sighed.

“Ugh, fine. But _only_ because you’re such a dumb.”

Finn didn’t hear that last part, already whooping excitedly.

“Hey Dandy! Listen up. We can’t bring you colours, but we can bring you:” He held his hand out dramatically. “ _Imagination_.”

Without further ado, Jake whipped out his trusty violin, and Finn brought his hands together and started beatboxing.

_Well this is a song  
About the colours of the world._

_There’s so many shades  
Painted all around._

_Can you remember  
The colours of the world?_

_Spinning red and gold and purple  
Till your feet don’t touch the ground._

_Sing!_

_Laaa la la! Lala la laaa!_  
Lala la laaa!  
Colours around you!

Finn and Jake started dancing in a circle around the lion, who started singing along with them in harmony.

 _Laaa la la! Lala la laaa!_  
Lala la laaa!  
Colours all around!

“I … I can remember!” The lion had a huge grin on his face, so wide that he glowed. “I can taste ... the rainbow!”

And in a burst of dazzling light, the lion flashed out of existence with a multi-hued crash of lightning.

Finn and Jake stared at the place where the lion once stood.

“Uh...”

“Oh my glob!”, yelled a nearby ghost, “They helped that lion pass on!”

A crowd gathered around the two heroes, chattering loudly.

“Did they really?”  
“They totally just did that!”  
“Maybe they could do it for me too?”

“Hey kid!”, one of the nearer ghosts sidled up to Finn. “Think you could do the same thing for me?”

“Well...” Finn laughed nervously. “I guess I’ve got nothing else to do until the Princess stops washing her hair?”

So Finn and Jake beatboxed and played music for many, many ghosts, sending them on one by one until the whole area was lit up with so many poofs of colour that it looked much more like Ooo than Ghost Land.

It was only a matter of time until Ghost Princess came screaming out of her castle.

"Stop that!”

Everyone froze mid-song, watching the pale Ghost Princess descend from the sky to stand in front of Finn, hair whipping around in a frenzied rage. Finn just stared at her, hands still clasped in a beatboxing position.

“Stop what?”

“You're emptying my kingdom out! I'll have no subjects if you continue!", screeched the princess.

"Well dude, you were taking hella long washing your hair and we were killing time and stuff."

“Argh!” With an unholy shriek, Ghost Princess waved her hands in the air. “ _Leave us!_ ”

All the ghosts in the area immediately dashed away as fast as possible. Finn and Jake made as to follow them, but two deathly cold hands clamped around their collars.

“No, _you_ come with _me_.”

===

Although it was was as dim and grey as the rest of Ghost Land, what the castle didn’t have in colour, it made up for with sheer ornateness. Lace dripped from the curtains and tablecloths, and brilliant white crystals hung from the candelabras and other light fixtures, gleaming whiter than the Ice King’s kingdom.

“Geez,” whispered Jake as he and Finn were whisked through the halls, “Who taught her how to decorate? It feels like a little kid’s bedroom or something.”

Ghost Princess dropped Finn and Jake onto the floor before her throne and settled herself before them.

“So you want the Hambo.”

“Yeah, we came looking for him.” Finn scratched his head. “Uh, you know where he is?”

“Yes.”

“Oh! Oh great!” Finn grinned widely. “Can you show us?”

“Well...” Ghost Princess stamped her foot on the ground, causing the crystal ornaments of her castle to shake dangerously. “No! You can’t have him! He’s- He’s mine!”

“No, he’s not!” Finn set his hands on his hips and yelled right back at the Princess. “You stole him! He’s Marceline’s!”

“He... he is, but …” And then Ghost Princess's face melted into a childish wibble. “B-but he’s so _cute_ and Marceline...”

Finn and Jake both stepped back, surprised, when Ghost Princess flung herself at their feet, wailing and beating the ground with her arms and legs.

“Marceline’s just so _cool_!”

Ghost Princess rolled around on the floor, alternately laughing brightly and sobbing in misery.

“Marceline’s just the prettiest and she sings so well and the Scream Queens are just- _gosh!_ \- and I love all of their music, but I’m stuck here in Ghost Land and I can never be as beautiful or talented as her and I just...” Teary eyed, the Ghost Princess looked up at Finn and Jake from where she lay on the floor at their feet. “I just want to be more like her. I thought … M-maybe it’d make me a better princess....”

And that’s when it struck Jake and Finn just how _small_ this Ghost Princess was.

“Oh hey... you’re a new Princess, aren’t you?”, asked Finn, suddenly remembering that he had been _there_ when the last Ghost Princess passed on not too long ago.

“Y-yes.” Ghost Princess pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, murmuring into her skirts.

She’s actually really young, all things considered. Just a baby ghostling.

“Hey.” Finn came closer to her, kneeling down so that their faces were on the same level. “Hey, you know, you don’t really need Hambo.”

“B-but he’s-!” The Princess stammered, but Finn just kept speaking right over her.

“I mean, he’s cool and all, but he’s a Vampire Queen’s, right?” Finn smiled sunnily and patted Ghost Princess on the head. “You’re gonna be a _Ghost_ Queen, right?”

“R-Right.”

Finn nodded thoughtfully. “So if you’re gonna be a Ghost Queen, you’re gonna need a different stuffed animal. Something a little more... ghostly.” Grabbing Jake, Finn held up a finger. “Give us a sec.”

“O... kay?”

With their backs turned to the princess, Finn hissed at Jake, “Dude, help me out with this.”, as he pulled something out of his bag.

“With wha-oh.”

Jake stared at what Finn was holding and sighed in resigned amusement.

“I gotcha bro.”

Finn turned back around as Jake fiddled with Important Things behind his back.

“So okay, you need a new toy friend. Only you don’t have anything really, um... real here, right? So, um... I had this hat, right?” He smiled sheepishly. “I mean, I can’t use it anymore, so it’s sort of dead, and that suits you, right? And with Jake fixing it up a bit...”

At that moment, Jake smacked a soft white toy into Finn’s outstretched hand. “Phew! Done!”

The bear hat!stuffed animal was a bit lopsided, with mismatched buttons for eyes and patches in a couple of places where it had been damaged before. It’s not the most beautiful of creations.

“IT’S PERFECT!”

Ghost Princess grabbed it out of Finn’s hand without even a moment of hesitation.

“What’s his name?”

“Uh...Oh.” Finn scratches his head and says the first name that comes to him. “Sherringford?”

"Ah! I’ll call him Sherry!” She squeezed the makeshift bear-hat stuffie and squealed “I love him so much! Thank you!”

“Heh, no problem, girl!”

Finn leaned over and ruffled her hair again.

“So about Hambo...”

==

When Finn and Jake finally get home, Marceline was sucking the last traces of red from an apple while poking Beemo’s tummy.

“Took you long enough.”

“Well, y’know, it’s sort of a walk from here to Ghost Land and back.”

Marceline laughed and tucked Hambo into her backpack.

“Well thanks guys. I … it means a lot to me.” She looked away as she gave thanks, slight colour coming to her cheeks.

Finn and Jake grinned.

“No problem!”

“Yeah, that’s what heroes like us do!”

“Sure, sure. So...” Marceline put Beemo aside and picked her bass up from the floor. “Wanna jam a little?

“Mathemagical!”

**Author's Note:**

> I actually wrote up the song that Jake and Finn sing quickly for this fic. If you're interested, giftee dearest, I can upload it for your listening pleasure once the reveal is up c:


End file.
